• Published 24th May 2015
  • 4,999 Views, 246 Comments

My Little Pony Bizarre Adventures - Part 1: Ponyville Central - LateBronyWriter



One Thousand years ago, the saints Celestia and Luna drew upon the power of the Red Stone of Aja to defeat the demon Discord. Now one thousand years later the Stone is destroyed, beginning the tale of six ponies and their quest to redeem the world.

  • ...
13
 246
 4,999

PreviousChapters Next
Chapter 40-Black Nirvana- Take 1

Black Nirvana-Take 1:


Po…..BANG!

With a loud snap the two unicorn mares and their baggage land with a thump on the floor, the two unconscious stallions accompanying them barely groaning from the sudden jump through subspace as they hit the floor like a sack of flour. As for the mares, the sudden snapping of space and time around them due to their less-than-stellar teleport has done wonders for their nausea and throbbing headaches. Groaning on the ground like a pair of hung-over party ponies, the two mares groggily rise to their hooves, their senses recoiling as if they were slapped upside the head. Yet, refusing to yield to the pain, the two mares get a grip on their disoriented senses and rise shakily to their hooves.

“Ugh!” Trixie groans loudly, “to get your cutie mark for making botched teleports, Twibright or are you actually trying to give Trixie a headache?”

Trixie winces from her own loud shout as an equally loud Twilight shouts back, “Hey! I’ve been fighting against a horde of zombies all night! Cut me some slack, Trixie; I got us here, didn’t I?”

Both mares wince at Twilight’s booming voice and they both decide from that moment on to be as quiet as possible. “Whatever, Twibright. But this is the last time Trixie trusts your teleports. I mean, look at where you’ve brought the Great and Powerful Trixie!”

With a dramatic gesture of her hoof Trixie highlights the shrouded room that is so dark her light blue coat can barely be seen against the sky blue wallpaper. “It’s so dark here Trixie cannot even see her hooves. What, have you decided to teleport us to the basement?” Trixie straightens her mane as she looks at the run-down appearance of the room around her. “All Trixie knows for sure is that next time she is teleporting herself next time.”

“Ugh.” Twilight rubs her horn gingerly as she glances around the room as well. “If my calculations were right we should be in the entryway of the police station. It’s the only part of the police station I was familiar with so I thought it would be the best endpoint for a teleport.”

Her headache finally having faded away Twilight creates a gentle magical current with her horn and illuminates the scene around her with cautious optimism. However, the room that greets her vision is nothing like the scene that she was familiar with. The glass windows, emblazoned with the seal of the Ponyville police, lie shattered, the cold night air drifting across the broken frames producing a haunting whistle with every errant gust of wind. The front desk that once housed a friendly desk clerk lies overturned and shattered on the floor in thousands of pieces. The magazines and empty periodicals lie on the floor torn to shreds and covered in bite marks. Even the seat cushions and potted plants lie scattered about as if a tornado had decided to sweep through the room without any regard for the life that it once contained.

In short, the familiar and welcoming entryway to the police station has seemingly been replaced with something out of a horror novel, the alien feeling of the room around her accentuating the apprehension the purple mare is trying to suppress. This apprehension is for now just simple nervousness; however, as the mare gropes around in the dark she begins to instinctively crave for the comfort and insight only brilliant light can bring. Noticing a nearby light switch, the lavender mare reaches out with her hoof towards it in high hopes. Yet as she flicks the switch, the lights above her flicker for a scant moment before dying out, like candles in the wind.

“The lights must have gone out, either they blew a fuse or worse the power’s been cut.” Twilight looks around and finally manages to find the doors that lead further into the building. “That could be a problem for later; if there are no lights around us we’ll have to rely upon our horns for illumination.”

“Whatever, you said that Shining Armor is on the second floor of this place, right?” Trixie remarks, completely dismissive of Twilight’s concerns. “Let’s just drop these ponies off with the captain and take a nice long nap. A good pampering is just what Trixie needs after all her hard work.”

Twilight rolls her eyes at the unicorn’s self-centered attitude, but she suppresses a hearty yawn. Even the normally-practical mare admits to herself that the opportunity to take a good night’s sleep sounds absolutely divine at this point.

“Well I can tell you one thing for sure; this building definitely needs a new coat of paint after all of this. Hello, Shining! We’re back!” Twilight shouts as she throws open the main doors of the police station, entering the completely dark and gloomy first floor. Despite the darkness surrounding them, the illumination from the horns of the two mares is just powerful enough the reveal the outline of several prone bodies as well as dark blotches smeared across the floor and walls; the dank, coppery smell immediately informs the two mares that the dark blotches are, in fact, blood.

Twilight gulps as she diminishes the light from her horn, not wanting to see any more than she has to of the remains of the battle before her. “Oh right, this building was home to a gruesome battle. Well, let’s get a move on, we certainly don’t want to be here all day.”

“Trixie agrees with Twilight.” Trixie takes a deep breath as both mares step cautiously into the room. “I knew that there was conflict here, I… Trixie just did not imagine how brutal it was.”

“I’d skip over this if I could Trixie,” Twilight states, “But if Shining’s barrier is still in place, trying to jump into the second floor would have caused the entire teleport to backfire. Just keep your head down and try to block out the smell.”

However, blocking out one’s sense of smell is easy compared to blocking out the horrific images that try to force their way into the ponies’ imaginations. Images of death and battle, of blood and terror, these are the things that they cannot suppress or drown out. Yet onwards they trod, every second in that room seeming like a year as they trip over various personal effects and grope about blindly searching for a path to take. Finding a relatively clean part of the floor in the center of the room Twilight looks around, trying to recall where the stairs to the second floor were on such a building.

Propping the heavy and unconscious form of Caramel against a nearby table, Twilight does her best to ignore the grisly surroundings as she once again cries out for her brother. “Shining, where are you? In case you can’t tell, the hordes of zombies have been put to rest! We’ve got the guys responsible for this catastrophe and we need Stand collars to put on them.”

Taking a cue from Twilight Trixie plops badly bruised Noteworthy on a nearby desk as she takes stock of the dark around her, thankful that their horn lights can only show them a fraction of the carnage around them. As the light of the blue showmare’s horn sweeps the dark interior of the room around them, she grows more anxious for every second that Twilight’s words go unanswered. “Trixie has a bad feeling about this. And this place is giving her the creeps.”

“Oh hush, Trixie,” Twilight says condescendingly. “We’re on the first floor, they had to barricade it off when the zombies attacked, remember? Of course it would look a little creepy. My brother and the rest of the squad are probably still barricaded on the second floor.”

Clink.

“EEEEEEIIIIIII” Trixie shrilly screams and grasps the purple mare next to her. “Whatwasthatwasitanotherzombiedon’tletiteatmybrains!!!” Trixie yells in a panic as her ears swivel around on her head, listening for any more signs of the enemy.

Twilight blushes heavily as she struggles to push the showmare off of her body. “Trixie! Let go now! I know that this isn’t the nicest of places but there’s no reason to freak out like that!”

Trixie gulps. “But that sound was…..”

“…..Was my hoof knocking a glass bottle, Trixie.” Twilight confirms. “There’s nothing to be afraid of here.”

“Oh right…. Trixie knew that, she was just testing you!” Trixie blurts out, embarrassed that she just showed her eternal rival a very fearful and not very powerful side of herself.

Ignoring Trixie’s normal shenanigans, Twilight glances around the room, thankful that in the dark she can’t make out the faces and gruesome injuries doubtless sustained by the soldiers and undead alike. “But you are right about one thing, this place is giving me the creeps. Let’s grab our ‘friends’ and get to the second floor already.”

Eager to save face Trixie eagerly takes Twilight’s advice. Exhibiting unnatural calm, the Great and Powerful Trixie takes a few deep and calming breaths as the turns around to retrieve their prisoners, when she sees something that really scares her. “Um Twilight?” Trixie asks tensely.

Twilight groans. “Yes, Trixie, what is it now?”

“What did you do with that earth pony?”

“You mean Caramel? I put him down right over….” Twilight points her hoof at sheer nothingness, the spot that she had placed Caramel a moment before completely vacant. “This is bad.”

Drip

Expressing her frustration with a few extra decibels, Trixie snaps at the Purple bookworm. “You lost him!? He was right there and you let him get away! Way to go Twibright!”

Drip

“Well excuse me, Trixie, I thought that you were doing your job and watching them like a Stand agent is supposed to!”

Drip

“Don’t heap the blame on Trixie, he was your prisoner! You know what his Stand can do, right?! And you are the one that let him get away! Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Drip

“T-Trixie, is that blood?” Twilight asks, a shiver passing through her body as she points to Trixie’s back.

Distracted by the librarian’s statement, Trixie turns around to see her pristine cape tarnished by several large drops of blood, staining it crimson in several places. “Urgh, and Trixie just cleaned this from undead slime.” Trixie grimaces as she once again applies her magic towards cleaning the bright red drops from her precious cape.

As Trixie applies a basic cleaning spell to her coat and cape, the scientist in Twilight, though repulsed by the reality of the dripping blood, drives her to move closer to get a better look at the drops of red still staining Trixie’s cape. “It’s blood alright, and from its thickness, consistency, and uniform position of the drops it looks to be fresh.”

Trixie rolls her eyes, both from the inconvenience of cleaning her cape again, and Twilight’s inane questions. “Well, in case little miss bookworm couldn’t tell, this is a battlefield, of course there’s going to be blood.” Trixie’s eyes take on an unreadable expression as she finishes cleaning her precious cape. “It’s probably from somepony that Trixie knew, so I would prefer if you didn’t draw too much attention to it.”

“Y-Yes I understand that, Trixie, but….. WHY is it fresh?” Twilight’s hooves shake as the hairs on her neck begin to stand on end. “Like I said, they boarded off this part of the building hours ago….. so where did the fresh blood come from?”

Drip

“ARRRRGGGGHHHH!” Trixie explodes as another drop of blood falls on her cape from above. “That’s just great! Trixie demands to know where that infernal dripping is coming……”

Trixie and Twilight look up at the same time and both of them freeze in their tracks, as they find out where the source of fresh blood was coming from. Caramel is their donor, and from the way he has been pinned to the ceiling with various sharpened knives and fragments of glass, with a single jagged slash across his throat, it is painfully evident that he is very, very dead. Yet, the most horrifying aspect of Caramel’s appearance is not his torn and broken body or the dozens of implements nailing him to the ceiling, but his wide-open and terror-filled eyes; his visage alone conveying the fact that he died begging for mercy from whatever it was that killed him. The two mares look up at the bloody corpse above them and their hearts stop, their breath grows shallow, as they nearly die from the sudden shock. The specter of death hangs over them and both mares now know one irrefutable truth….

“We’re not alone here, Trixie,” Twilight says in a deathly quiet whisper, logic taking over so that her fear cannot. Blinking almost mechanically the mare immediately tries to drive the image of the flayed stallion from her mind, even as her eyes continue to stare vacantly at his broken form.

Trixie doesn’t respond at all, her entire body torn between dry heaving at the gruesome scene above her and and the desire to flee in terror. “I-I didn’t hear anything….” Trixie finally manages to say after a while. “….How… how could a pony…..” Trixie suppresses a surge of bile from her stomach. “…How could anypony do that… without us noticing? It’s impossible.”

Twilight looks around her as panic begins to take hold. “Trixie! W-Where’s Noteworthy?”

Trixie swivels her head around, finding no pony to greet her. Both relieved that whatever it was didn’t get her and horrified that something that brutal got close enough to her to snatch her target from behind her back, Trixie flails her head around, jerking every which way as she looks for any sign of the invisible foe. But the first sign of their shadowy foe comes not from their obfuscated sense of sight, but their ever-keen sense of hearing, as the snide voice of the blue unicorn, Noteworthy, echoes through the darkness.

“B-B-B-B-Boss!” they hear Noteworthy stutter, his previously-confident voice replaced by a tone that betrays the level of fear he is currently feeling. “I-I-I did as you commanded! I distracted the entire town, your ruse worked to perfection!”

“SILENCE!” the dark voice booms, echoing off the wall in a way that makes it sound like the terrible voice is closing in on them from all sides. “You have failed me, Noteworthy; I placed you in change of this mission rather than Caramel who was the head of our prostitution ring. Do you know why?”

With their sense amplified by their fear, the two mares can hear in the dark as the once-fearless unicorn Noteworthy shakes his head erratically. “It is because…” the dark voice continues, “…I related to your mission of purifying the world, and believed your resolve carry out your mission would give you victory.”

“B-B-But Boss, please! I did exactly as you asked!” Noteworthy cries out in a desperate plea. “And if I must say so myself, it is thanks to my efforts that…...”

“I SAID SILENCE!” the voice booms even louder, the very darkness around the two mares seeming to dance like waves on a stormy sea from the sound of the voice. “You have lead my target here and for that I give you praise. But you have allowed yourself to be captured by the enemy, which means that you could have let slip elements of my plan, or movements of our gang.”

The mares can hear once against as the previously fearless unicorn gulps heavily in the dark as he vaguely suspects how horribly he has upset the demon in the dark. “Do you know why Melodia is so successful?” the dark voice asks. “Don’t answer; it is because few ponies if any know the full extent of my organization, it is our secrecy that leads to our success. Liabilities must be disposed of and Traitors must be put in their place. It has always been our creed ever since I founded this gang, that those that know anything of value are either my allies, or they are dead. ”

“Now then,” The temperature drops ten degrees around them as the dark voice takes on a tone that is colder than the arctic wastes of the crystal north. “Why don’t you take a guess and tell me which one you are.”

“I’m going to die…?” Noteworthy asks with a tone of what the two mares can barely comprehend; with a clear voice Noteworthy responds with a tone of hopefulness. “Are…. Are you really going to kill me? After so long I will finally know a merciful and quick death? Will I be saved from the impurity of this world?”

The dark voice chuckles along with Noteworthy. “You have been awaiting this moment for years, haven’t you? Since I respected you I shall not lie. Yes, Noteworthy, I am going to kill you. However….” The voice, like a serpent playing with its meal, suddenly turns dark and cold. “…. I never said that it would ‘quick’ or ‘merciful’. I might have been able to forgive your eccentrics, but you know the rules of my gang and you know the rules of my Stand!”

A loud snap fills the air followed by a blood curling scream as the voice booms out over the violence, “ALL WHO BETRAY MY SECRETS MUST DIE!”

The sounds of a pony dying are not something that should or that can be expressed in words. The snapping of bones, the gurgle of fresh blood, and the last strained breaths as a pony struggles against pain for the right to live another second more, is not something that anypony should want to hear. And needless to say the tortured screams of a pony, even an enemy, serve as a potent form or psychological torture for any that may hear it. Twilight Sparkle and Trixie are no exception as they huddle together, shaking in fear from the evil voice that is capable of inflicting so much pain, dreading the moment that the screams die and the voice turns its attention towards them. The screams grow louder; Trixie herself stands frozen in the middle of the room trying to suppress the fear rapidly gaining control of her body. Twilight clenches her eyes, yelling at the top of her lungs as she tries half-successfully to drown out the screams echoing around her.

As the sound of the unicorn’s screams finally die down, the room reverts back to the silent state it had before, and the two ponies look around at the darkness around them. Their hormones and adrenaline racing, their instincts are stuck between two simple but impossibly difficult choices. Two choices that will decide whether they live or die: to fight against the darkness, or to flee.

Drip

“We need to leave,” Twilight concludes without a second’s hesitation. “NOW!”

The doors to the entrance slam shut with the resounding crash of a thunderbolt just as the mares turn to flee in that direction. The two mares have just enough time to gasp for the sound to be mirrored by every door out of the room they are in being slammed shut by an invisible force.

“Teleport NOW!” Twilight yells out, both mares frantically igniting their horns as they prepare to teleport. However, much to the two mares’ panic, their horns fizzle out as their spells fade into nothing, their magic dissipating harmlessly into the void without ever achieving their purpose.

“Why isn’t it working?!” Trixie shouts as her attempts to escape fizzle. “Come on, work, work, work!”

“It’s no use, Trixie!” Twilight shouts out as her horn glows with a dark red light. “I don’t know what, but there’s some strange spatial magic blocking us! Whoever is behind this, they must be an extremely skilled magical practitioner or a Stand user.” Twilight looks around, fully expecting a cliché villain to pop out from the dark to monologue about his plan. “It’s probably both.”

“Well well well,” the dark voice chuckles right on cue. “For once, the slave of Celestia is wrong. You see, as a prison in Equestria, the runes around the building allow entry through subspace only when entering the building.”

Like a mountain lion toying with its prey, the dark presence circles around the two mares, more than happy to forestall the inevitable bloodshed with empty banter. “As you know, teleportation uses the astral plane to sidestep physical matter and space, allowing the travel of great distances in the blink of an eye. I won’t bore a foolish mare like you with the details, but the magic was designed that prisoners could be teleported in, but prisoners couldn’t teleport out.”

The hairs on the coats of the two mares stand on end as they can practically feel the presence of the voice. Every syllable seems to strike their coats malevolently, probing their bodies, revealing every weakness and dark fear. “If you wanted to say, escape by teleporting, you would have to find a way of traveling through space other than the aether, like how that orange pegasus turned himself into lightning and teleported himself along a fixed path.”

The voice laughs in the darkness as the two mares huddle together in an effort to appear brave. “Though you were right about one thing, filly, I am an extremely skilled magical practitioner, as well as a peerless Stand user.”

Something the voice said gains Twilight’s immediate attention as she circles around to the direction it’s coming from. “You know about Flash’s power? How long have you been watching us? Noteworthy called you ‘Boss’; who are you? Is my brother safe?! I swear, if you have done anything to hurt him……”

“That is indeed a great many questions, Twilight,” the voice remarks, “however, I think that you only want the answer to one of them. “

“…..The necro…… Noteworthy called you Boss, and you mentioned the gang, Melodia.” With deep, panting breaths Twilight steels her resolve, trying to drive away her rising terror at being forced to commune with the voice in the darkness. “S-So who are you?”

The entire room grows silent as the two mares wait on bated breath for a response, for anything other than the all-consuming silence that could signal their demise. Twilight is about to repeat her question when the entire room is filled with dark and nefarious laughter, so loud the wind itself blows their manes. “A most excellent question, Twilight Sparkle! Normally I would immediately kill any pawn of Celestia’s on principle alone, but…...”

With wide eyes the two mares look directly in front of them as the darkness begins to congeal, a dark and nefarious looking figure pulling itself out of the shadows and into the light of their horns. “.....for such a special filly as Trixie, and her…. companion, I will answer that particular question.”

Coming to a stop directly in front of them is a stallion of great height and charisma, his dark grey coat and sleek black mane styled to perfection, matching perfectly with his steam-pressed black and white pinstripe suit. His pristine white tie, contrasting sharply with his black undershirt, serves to draw the eyes of the two mares to his muscled limbs and barrel. His horn, if such a sharp, jagged protrusion could be called that, looks almost crystalline, as if somepony shoved a piece of glowing Red Stone into his skull. However, the most terrible and mesmerizing part of the stallion is not his garb, his coat, or his blood-red cutie mark of a cluster of dark crystals, but his eyes. His glowing green eyes surging with dark magic seem to stare through everything, their evil gaze corrupting everything they set their vision on.

“My name is Sombra, leader of the criminal enterprise Melodia. And the reason I have told you this is simple. Anypony that knows my identity or my Stand is either my ally or they are dead.” Grinning with razor sharp teeth, the stallion licks his lips with a forked tongue as he stares at the mares before him. “Now then, Twilight Sparkle, here is the real question: which one are you?”

Taking full advantage of the initiative of surprise, Twilight lets loose a powerful burst of concentrated magical energy at the stallion. The beam of purple light dances haphazardly through the air as it soars like a thunderbolt towards Sombra’s skull. Yet at the last moment, an even more horrifying figure than Sombra materializes behind him. The dark Stand, covered from hoof to head in ragged bandages and rusty iron nails, raises its red crystal claws and with one swing of its hoof parries the beam, causing the bolt of magic to explode with deafening force against its clawed hoof.

Even Twilight cannot help but lose her focus as her mind tries to comprehend the tortured Stand before her. Part of Twilight wonders to herself what trauma such a pony would have to go through to obtain a psyche as twisted as the Stand she sees, while the more logical part wonders how exactly it will kill her. Trixie, for her part, stares vacantly at the Stand in front of her eyes, her hooves shaking in place, while her teeth grit together in a vice-like grip.

Rubbing his smoking, injured hoof Sombra groans, clearly expressing his frustration with the mare before him as he clenches his teeth in pain. “Clearly manners were not something that fraud Celestia was able to teach you. In case you didn’t know, it is bad manners to try and kill a pony when they are…….”

“It’s you……”

The two ponies’ heads turn towards Trixie, the sudden coldness of her words instantly gaining their attention. Her gaze, though obscured by her wide brim hat, is leveled straight at the stallion. “Ah, my dear Trixie Lulamoon,” Sombra remarks good naturedly. “Don’t you worry, I will be with you in a second. Right after I have…..”

“Why?”

“Humh?” The stallion looks inquisitively towards the shaking blue showmare. “Forgive me, my dear, but I fail to understand what you are asking. Why what?”

“WHY DID YOU KILL MY PARENTS!?!” Putting all her power and anger behind a single blow Trixie leaps forward, her Stand’s hoof flashing as she throws perhaps the most powerful left cross in her life. Sombra, shocked by Trixie’s sudden attack and the rage behind it, barely has enough time to raise his Stand’s crystalline guard as Trixie’s Magic Mare hits him full-force. The room shudders from the shockwave of the blow as Sombra is sent skidding across the ground, his Stand’s guard shattered by Trixie’s act of retribution. As he comes to a stop the stallion glares at the blood dripping down his forehead, an indication of how close the mare in front of him came to flattening him with a single punch.

“Trixie is sorry, but correct her if she is wrong.” The showmare throws off her hat, allowing her to stare straight into Sombra’s eyes. “You, the pony in front of me with the bandaged Stand, said that anypony that knew your secrets was either dead or your ally.”

Sombra grimaces as the wound on his forehead regenerates before his eyes. “I fail to see how…”

“If so, then that is a very fortunate prophecy, Sombra,” Trixie growls as she throws off her cape to the side. “Because since you know the secret of why you killed my parents, I’m going to KILL YOU!”

Once again the mare leaps forward with a powerful shoulder blow, a blow that Sombra barely dodges as he leaps dramatically into the air. Unwilling to let her hated enemy elude her for even a second, the blue showmare bombards the stallion’s form in midair with a merciless barrage of punches.

DOJYA DOJYA DOJYA DOJYA DOJYA DOJYAAAAN!!!

Guarding against the mare’s sudden blows the stallion rebounds off her attack, landing on a nearby table with a graceful backflip that one would not expect of a stallion of his girth. Brushing off his coat with his left hoof the stallion turns back towards the mare with a mildly perturbed look. “Trixie, if you wished to prove your skills then you have succeeded. However, this match is irrelevant. Now, I don’t know why it is that you wish my demise but I can assure you….”

“YOU DON'T EVEN REMEMBER!?!” With her horn blazing Trixie fires off a powerful burst of fire where Sombra was standing not a moment before. As the flames scorch the floor, Trixie allows a second to feel proud of herself for vanquishing her enemy, only for her ears to perk at the sound of perplexed humming. The mare cranes her neck behind her to see in shock that the stallion that she thought that she had incinerated is sitting idly on top of a table behind her, his hoof rubbing his chin as if he was deciphering a difficult riddle.

“…..Ah, you are recalling THAT night!” the dark stallion muses as he once again leaps onto the floor, his Stand at the ready to intercept any attack made. “Yes…… I see how you might hold a grudge against me for such an act. Murder is typically frowned upon in civilized society, typically if it is one’s caregivers.” THe stallion says with a hint of sorrow in his voice. “But to say that was a malicious act might be going a little too far; after all, their deaths were not my intention either.”

The hairs on Trixie’s neck bristle in anger as she stomps her fore hoof into the ground. “Don’t you DARE play coy, you ….”

“Come to your senses, FOOL!” Sombra roars with such force that even Trixie recoils a bit from his words. Clearing his throat from the loud bellowing, the stallion’s chastising voice reverberates off the walls of the room, each echo restating the same point the stallion is trying with all of his might to convey. “Yes, I am responsible for the deaths of those two ponies; however, you have allowed your rage and anger to blind you to the truth!”

Leaning down at Trixie from his perch above her Sombra leans in to chastise the showmare. “You fail to realise that such a small crime makes no difference in the greater scheme of things. A single life, a single drop of blood in the bucket, amounts to nothing at all. It is the effect on the world that can be achieved by using such a life that matters! After all, had you known what your father had done, then you would have thanked me for killing him!”

With a scream Trixie leaps forward with her Stand punching all the while. Putting her Stand’s power for illusions into effect the mare seems to vanish in a second, only for her blows to appear from out of nowhere. Yet despite her completely unpredictable attacks, Sombra’s guard absorbs her blows with minimal damage as his hoof work allows him to circle around the mare’s attacks.

“DO YOU NOT KNOW?! Do you not know of the crimes committed by that fraud, by Celestia?! The disasters she has begot from that cursed womb of hers; the destruction she has wrought with the Corpse’s powers?!” His Stand’s arms shoot out in an instant as both Stands engage hoof to hoof in a flurry of blows. The barrages carry on as both side pours their all into overpowering the other with raw numbers. Yet in the end Sombra’s well-placed attacks win out as his accurate blows deflect Trixie’s attack, allowing him a clear uppercut to the show mare’s gut. The blow causes the mare’s knees to shiver and buckle, her breath stuck in her throat as she tries to regain her footing, only for her to be knocked to her rump by straight across to her face.

“You know the extent of Celestia’s crimes, and you call me a murderer? If I am truly guilty of such a crime, then Celestia is guilty of genocide!”

“Trixie!” Her sudden fears forgotten, Twilight Sparkle, who had been sitting on the sidelines, rushes over to the injured mare. Thinking on her hooves the mare erects a powerful barrier over the two of them, its luminous light cutting through the black of the room. With her shield sound and secure, only then does Twilight divert attention away from Sombra as she looks over the injured showmare for signs of serious injuries. “Don’t move, Trixie. You’ve fought well but it’s clear that you’re outmatched in terms of strength and skill, we both are.”

“Not only that…” Looking over towards the stallion through the transparent dome of lightest purple, the mare takes in the dark radiance emanating from the stallion’s body. “Did you see his left hoof? I’m ninety two percent sure that my magic missile took a chunk off of it, but now there’s not even a scratch on it! I never even saw him cast his healing spell! And to top it off we still don’t even know what his Stand power is, nor the extent of his magical powers!”

“Heh… so what….” With enormous willpower the showmare Trixie straightens her back as she pushes against the ground like a weary boxer. “So what… if he can heal himself…. Trixie will just have to…. beat him down until he stays dead….”

“That’s not the point, Trixie, and you know it!!” Twilight shouts gripping Trixie’s injured torso in an attempt to help her up. “We’re hopelessly outmatched here. Now I’m worried about my brother and the others solders too, but we need to regroup and get the rest of the Crusaders so that we can….”

However Twilight’s firm grasp on the showmare is brushed away as Trixie laughs in her face. “Feh…. I should have suspected it….. you said that you were my ally, my friend…. But here you are willing to abandon everything that Trixie has ever struggled for because you’re scared!”

“T….Trixie….” Twilight bites down on her teeth, suppressing her rising anxiousness as the show mare’s comment rings true in her heart. “Okay, yes I’m afraid, Trixie, but that doesn’t change the fact that we can’t beat Sombra now! We’re tired and we don’t know our enemy’s strengths and weaknesses, and to top it off we’re separated from our friends. We need to get out of here so that we can live to fight another day!”

“….Your bucked up logic may make sense in whatever little world you live in, Twibright,” Trixie states with a measure of utmost certainty as she rises to her hooves. “But all Trixie hears are excuses. Sometimes in life you only get one chance to achieve your dream, one chance to be a winner. It may not be the best chance but you have to take it because if you don’t, you will regret it forever.”

Trixie’s eyes blaze with an inner fire, her years of repressed hatred and rage - bottled up for so long - finally having an outlet upon which she can pour it all out. Staring down the stallion waiting patiently on the other side of the barrier she takes a step towards him as she clenches her teeth. “And if Trixie knows anything, Twibright, it’s that regret eats your soul from the inside out. So if Trixie is supposed to choose between death and regret, then Trixie chooses death. Bucking Tartarus if I’m going to run away with my tail between my legs and let some sociopath get away with murder!”

Pounding her hoof against the barrier, Trixie turns back towards the purple mare with such suddenness that Twilight backpedals in fear. “If you were really my friend you’d be helping me kill this monster with everything you had!! But look at you. You’re a coward looking around for the easiest way out!”

“T-Trixie….. Are you stupid!? Your stubbornness is going to get us both killed!”

“Fine then, if Twibright wants to play coward then she can do so, but Trixie is no coward and she’s not about to let some dark-loving freak get away with killing Trixie’s parents!!” Before Twilight can even respond the showmare flattens her with a single blow from the back of her hoof. Clutching her injured horn Twilight yelps painfully, the sudden interruption of her concentration causing her spell to fail and the barrier around them to fade away, leaving nothing between the two mares and Sombra himself.

With Twilight’s barrier having crumbled around her, Trixie manifests her Stand in full as she attacks the stallion’s weaving body with a fast volley of punches. “You’re mine, Sombra!!” Trixie shouts out as her missed punches shatter the desks and tables littering the room.

With deft and experienced movements the stallion manages to evade the mare’s blows and parry her attacks. Yet even his Stand seems to be unable to keep up with the mare’s ferocious assault as the occasional punch breaks through his guard. “So you’ve chosen to fight me, Trixie, why?” The stallion dodges another of Trixie’s blow by a fraction of a hair as it scrapes across his chest. “True, you have been wronged, Trixie, but it has not been by me. Why do you still stand by the fraud Celestia after all she has done!? Do you not know the disasters she has wrought, the orphans she has created?”

“Shut up!” Trixie yells as she hits the stallion had on with another punch. Her body getting used to the stallions pattern of dodging the mare inwardly grins as she once again manages to slip in between the stallion’s guard inflicting a powerful body blow that lifts Sombra half a hoof off the ground. “Trixie does not care about your messed up social life or your grievances with Celestia’s use of the Corpse. There is enough of that going around to frustrate even Trixie. All Trixie cares about now is bringing down a murderer, and that just so happens to be you!”

“I was not just talking about the Corpse, Trixie,” the stallion growls with such hatred that even the resolute showmare feels his limitless rage. Grabbing the showmare across the forearm the stallion applies his own body’s physical force as he throws her to the ground. “I was talking about the RSG, the experiments and the actions of the ones closest to you; the ones that re-wove the threads of our destinies and played with our lives as if we were their toys!!!”

The hairs on the stallion’s neck bristle in rage as he expresses his resentment with the power of his booming voice. “AND IT’S ALL HER FAULT!! THAT ARROGANT, EVIL SUN GODDESS!! HER FAILURES, HER ARROGANCE, THAT HAS LEAD TO THE DARKNESS OF THE WORLD!! SHE WILL PAY FOR WHAT SHE HAS DONE TO ME, TO US, TO HER!!!”

Calming down visibly, the stallion re-focuses his intent, the fires of his anger cool as his dark green eyes open, Peering through the darkness with his pulsing green eyes, his gaze once again leveled on the showmare, rising once again to her hooves. “But I have a plan, Trixie!” The stallion extends his hoof towards the showmare. “A plan to make everything right again! A plan to give not just you but all Ponykind the lives that they deserve! And for that, all I need is the Corpse, and I’ve already obtained more than half of it from that incompetent guard captain!”

Twilight’s ears perk up at this. In the heat of battle she had nearly forgotten about the current whereabouts of her brother. But at the mention of her only family in peril, Twilight leps to her hooves, her fear and hesitation momentarily forgotten. “Shining?! What have you done with him, you monster?!”

Speaking over the voice of the purple unicorn Sombra reaches the crescendo of his speech with a flurry of fanaticism. “…..JOIN ME, TRIXIE! Join me in the creation of a new world, and you will receive everything that you could possibly desire!! It is predestined!”

However, in response to the stallion’s emphatic pleas and arguments the showmare only smirks defiantly. “That’s funny, Sombra, because there is only one thing that the Great and Powerful Trixie desires in the all of the world.” Her horn glowing as bright as the light of a blazing star, the mare locks eyes with the stallion, making the full breadth of her hatred known. “And that is your death!”

To the stallion’s great surprise the floor underneath him seems to close in around him, dark, black walls surrounding him from all directions. Before the stallion can turn or run, he finds his body encased in all manner of magical chains and padlocks manipulated by the show mare’s magical powers. Grinning in satisfaction the mare closes up the walls around the stallion of darkness, forming an airtight black box surrounded with layer upon layer of protection spells that would prevent any method of escape, magical or physical.

“HA, you thought that the Great and Powerful Trixie was unprepared?!” the showmare flaunts in her victory as she lifts the black box off the ground with her magic. “Fool, Trixie has been planning this day her entire life! She was already leading you with her great and powerful attacks so that you would be standing right where Trixie wanted you!”

With a satisfied smile and a racing pulse the showmare materializes several dozen of her sharpest, most deadly swords, and they surround the box currently encased in her magical field. “Now take this! Trixie’s First and Greatest Trick….”

“Trixie!” Twilight yells out, “STOP!!”

“MAGICAL CUTTING BOXES!!!” With all the speed and precision a magi’s honed telekinesis could allow Trixie swings her horn, launching the steel blades towards the box at near-supersonic speeds. In half an instant the swords crash into the box with deafening force, impaling the enclosed box from every single direction with sharpened steel.

The room grows silent as the swords impaled into the box reverberate from the force of the impact. Breathing heavily, Trixie pants as her levitation around the box falters and finally fails, the box coming crashing down to the floor with a resounding boom. Trixie, recovering quickly from the sudden exertion, stares at the box lying lengthwise on the floor as her keen eyes catch sight of small drops of blood dripping from the tips of the edged weapons.

Trixie stares at the droplets, watching the grisly scene with a dumbfounded expression as if unable to comprehend how it could be over so quickly. Half of her couldn’t believe that it was over, that the pony that tormented her for her entire life was dead; however, the larger part of her was so elated she couldn’t have cared either way. Her slight curve of the muzzle slowly transforms into a smile. Her smile gives way to nervous chuckling, and finally all her repressed anxiousness, all her fears and pain over her entire life time cumulates in uproarious laughter. “H-H-H-Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!” The showmare extends her hooves to the heavens in relief. “How did you like that!? The Great and Powerful Trixie’s best performance to date! Surely a heart stopping performance, but then again, was there ever any doubt?”

Trotting over towards the box the mare grins like a maniac as she fiddles with the lid with her hooves. “And Twilight doubted my skills! Now then, Sombra, do you have anything to say for…..”

The lid of the box lands on the floor with a resounding crash as silence once again fills the room. Trixie’s mouth quivers and her knees threaten to buckle as she stares vacantly with deadened eyes at the inside of the box. Like a demented birthday present, or stepping on a landmine, the shock of the sight before the mare, Trixie Lulamoon, stops her heart and freezes her blood.

“T-Trixie…. PFHT!” Twilight cries silently as she coughs up her insides over the bottom of the box, blood from the multitude of sword wounds pooling around her critically-injured form. “I-I…. Told you..… that your stupid stubbornness was going…. going to get us killed……”

Looking down at the scene before her, the light blue showmare can only stare vacantly at the image of her dying friend as her mind futilely struggles to process what she has just seen. “T-T-T-Twi…… Twi……. How did you…. Why did you……. Twilight……”

“… Well… that’s a first…..” Twilight smiles macabrely to herself. “For once you don’t have anything to say…. Trixie…..”

“TTTTTTTTTTTTWWWWWWWWWIIIIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!”

Her cry reaching the heavens themselves, all of Trixie’s inner turmoil, her angst, her pain returns with tenfold force as the impact of what she has done shakes her more than any physical blow ever could. In front of her very eyes, against her most powerful attack, her dreaded enemy had not only escaped but made her attack her ally, her rival, her friend. And now she was lying an inch from death’s door….. and it was all her fault. As the magically conjured swords vanish back into the aether, Trixie realizes with a pained admission that she has truly become a failure. Her plans of revenge have fallen on their face, her decisions have led her to a life of loneliness and isolation, and now, more terrifyingly, it looked like she would be joining her parents in the afterlife.

“Well well well!” Sombra grins like the Cheshire cat as he trots out of the darkness. “And I thought that you cared for the mare Twilight Sparkle. Well, I suppose that it is inevitable that lovers should quarrel every now and again.” Sombra chuckles. “Though I can hardly believe that you hated her enough to kill her.”

“YOU!” Her rage rekindled the mare spins around to attack, to kill, to make the bloody stallion pay for every misdeed he has ever done. However, before she can even attack she finds her throat grasped and her body shoved into a wall behind her with an echoing crash.

“Enough playing around; It is over, Trixie Lulamoon.” The stallion clenches tighter around the mare’s throat with his Stand, causing the to visibly gasp for air. “And, given your…… situation…. I highly recommend that you give my offer to join me another thought.”

As the stallion tightens his grip around Trixie’s neck, the showmare pushes back against Sombra’s superior strength, her hatred for the stallion returning with full force. “You expect me….” The mare seethes with rage as she looks down at the bleeding form of Twilight Sparkle. “You expect me to join you? After everything you’ve done?! Are you insane?” Trixie gasps for breath, “Don’t answer that…. I don’t care what your sick plan is, I will NEVER serve you Sombra.”

“Ah, but you underestimate how special my offer is. Have you forgotten that I can save your little friend?” Without giving the mare a chance to respond the stallion extends his other hoof, and with sharpened teeth bites down with incredible force, a dark red substance forcing itself out of his veins. Trixie, shocked by the stallion’s sudden self-mutilation, tries to shy away only to find her face forced towards his injured hoof.

“Shhhhhhh!” Sombra shushes the mare as he extends his bloodied hoof. “Watch.”

Her eyes focused on Sombra’s hoof, Trixie is forced to watch the scene before her. At first the mare fails to notice anything of any significance, however, after a single second of staring Trixie sees something that truly chills her bones. The gaping wound on Sombra’s hoof slowly stitches itself together, the blood dripping out of the wound drawn together as if by an unseen force. As the wound disappears into nothing, the remainder of the blood on his hoof finds itself molded, shaped by the black glow of the stallion’s horn as it is collected and gathered up; its substance distilled to the point that it becomes a solid, blood-red stone that glows as his magic flows through it.

“You see, this substance flowing through my very veins is not pure blood. Coursing through my veins is the vital life force of the Red Stone, which gives me unparalleled strength and regenerative abilities.” Sombra chuckles. “And all it took was injecting crystallized Red Stones into my bone marrow.”

Trixie gasps at the stallion’s pronouncement as he continues to rant. “I was a……. soldier in Celestia’s army when I was…. recommended for this treatment. It was exceedingly painful at first, but after screaming for a full week you get used to the incredible upsurge of vital energy constantly tearing your body apart and rebuilding it from nothing.” Clenching his sharp teeth with such force that his grinding causes audible pops in the air, Sombra breaks into a demented grin. “And it’s all thanks to Celestia.”

His rage towards the Goddess now reaching its fever pitch the Stallion continues to rant on, his anger causing him to press Trixie Lulamoon further and further into the wall. “Celestia was a fool, in more ways than one! She failed to notice the fault of the Corpse, she failed to notice how our gang was growing in power! She is so blind that she does not even see her age is over when it is as plain as her precious sun.” The stallion barks, “Even now, she fails to notice the presence of the Traitor; but I suppose that you would know about such blindness, now wouldn’t you, Trixie?!”

Manifesting his Stand the stallion glances over towards the form of the prone and bleeding librarian, lying in the box like a corpse in a coffin. Without any respect or concern the stallion picks the mare out of the box with his Stand, only to drop her unceremoniously on the floor. As she writhes in pain from her wounds, Sombra looks down on the injured mare with complete apathy.

Sombra instantly takes stock of the physical condition of Twilight as he grunts in disgust. “Humph, her wounds were not as severe as I thought. Perhaps the great Trixie was holding back, or perhaps she was already healing the wounds even as she was being pierced?” Sombra raises his hoof, his Stand’s sharpened needles protruding from its body catching the glint of his green eyes. “I’ll have to do something about that, now won’t I?”

With a single precise swing of his hoof the sharpened crystal nails of his Stand cut clean through the mare’s wrist, the spurt of blood signaling the direness of her situation. Without wasting a second Trixie tries to free herself, to rush over towards her friend, only to find herself pushed back against the wall. She struggles and squirms to escape from Sombra’s grasp as the stallion presents the Red Stone made of his own blood to the desperate mare.

“One minute,” Sombra states as he presents the Red Stone to the showmare. “I shall give you one minute to make your decision! As you can see, I’ve cut her wrist down to the vein. Therefore, If you fail to accept my offer and give this her this Red Stone, within a minute she will lose consciousness and die!”

With wide beady eyes the mare looks between her tormenter, the stallion that she would trade her very life to kill, and the mare bleeding to death on the ground beneath her. On one hoof, vengeance: if she attacked while Sombra was distracted by his vile game she might be able to win, but then Twilight……

Could she get to Twilight in time if she focused on Sombra? Should she even save her? Twilight was…. special, no doubt…. But she was a fighter, she voluntarily put her life on the line. It wouldn’t be Trixie’s fault if she had to defeat Sombra by sacrificing her life. Bringing down the head of Melodia was a calling greater than one mare’s life! It could save countless other lives! It could end organized crime in Equestria! It would elevate Trixie to the highest ranks of society and make her the most recognized mare in the country!

And most importantly, It would allow her parents to rest in peace….. and it would finally allow Trixie to once and for all bury her cursed and checkered past. It would give Trixie everything that she ever wanted…..

…..So why did it feel so wrong to Trixie?

‘A single life, a single drop of blood in the bucket amounts to nothing at all. It is the effect on the world that can be achieved by using such a life that matters!’ Sombra’s voice echoes through Trixie’s head

“……. Well Trixie?” Sombra grins evilly as he looks over at the bleeding purple mare. “You have a big decision to make…… and not much time to make it in. So then, Great and Powerful Trixie what choice will you make?”

Author's Note:

To Be Continued →

PreviousChapters Next